9 ms·
Ok hackers, listen up... I know you love your fluid-width layouts, but just because you can fill the entire window with content, doesn't mean you have to. Bloc
by blehn 15y ago
Ok hackers, listen up...
I know you love your fluid-width layouts, but just because you can fill the entire window with content, doesn't mean you have to. Blocks of text become difficult to read (and also ugly) when lines get to a certain length. The rule of thumb is that about 60-80 characters per line is comfortable. On my display, this site has about 250 characters per line and it makes me want to hit the back button. Yes, I can use Readability, but that strips out the code formatting. Simple fix: put a containing div around your content, and set a max-width on that container.
See Jashkenas's work for examples of well-formatted technical writing:
http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/ http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/
http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/documentation/docs/grammar.html http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/documentation/docs...
Anyway, looks like a nice resource. Thanks for sharing.
- ericmoritz 15y agoJust shrink your window if you want 80 chars per line, jeez.
- blehn 15y agosigh
- inconditus 15y agoI'm not sure if you're being sarcastic, but the parent was offering advice for accessibility to help the member's of the community improve on their projects. Why would you disapprove of that?
- ars 15y agoI personally hate when sites make the text narrow. If I want the text narrow, I shrink the browser. (Which I never actually do BTW.) So to me the advice makes things worse, not better. 60-80 chars per line???? Even my email is wider than that. Go for at least 200.
- chicagobob 15y agoThis, a thousand times this.
- dextorious 15y agoSure, for some reason standard typographic practice and tons of readability tests that show the need for narrower lines don't apply to you especially.
- ars 15y agoAnd? I think it's a lot more people than you realize - at the moment my comment has 7 points, and that's despite getting downmodded a few times. This stuff with narrow lines may have been tested on poor readers perhaps? I don't know. All I know is I hate narrow lines - and I especially hate them on websites.
- dextorious 15y agoI mostly attribute it to self-delusion. Also, none of those 7 even did a proper A/B/A test on what they claim --while the counter-example is well shown in tons of tests.
- jdkoeck 15y agoLegibility is vastly improved in the readability-powered version (upper-left button). Your point still stands, of course.
- autotelicum 15y agoGood constructive feedback. I thought about it, so one of the next days when I get time, I'll add a little 'Limit Width' button up on top. It'll be freeflow by default, but just one click for those who prefer a narrower format.
- andybak 15y agoDon't leap so quickly to making it a user choice. Just 'Do The Right Thing'. In this case I think enforcing a max width is 'The Right Thing'. If you disagree then that'a ace but take the responsibility for your own defaults.
- ars 15y agoThe right thing is free-width of course. You have a personal need for narrow lines - no problem. But a lot more people than you realize do not like narrow lines.